Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Newsletter ~January 24


Greetings Rascal Families,


The mid-year DIBELS assessment will be completed today.  I am predicting marked improvement in all areas.  It is obvious you’ve been working with your child behind the scenes….THANK YOU!   I’ll be sending the assessment results home as we complete them.  Praise your child for all their hard work.  Keep the results in your home file.

Next week, the kinders will be taking the NWEA (MAP) Test in Reading and Math.  What is the MAP/NWEA Assessment?  NWEA's computerized adaptive tests are called Measure of Academic Progress, or MAP.  When taking a MAP test, the difficulty of each question is based on how well a student answers all the previous questions.  As the students answer correctly, questions become more difficult.  If the student answers incorrectly, the questions become easier.  The final score is an estimate of the student's achievement level.  

To help your child feel more comfortable with the format of the test, we have worked on the NWEA Warm-Up Tutorial during our computer lab period.  Continue practicing at home by clicking on the following link: 
http://www.nwea.org/sites/www.nwea.org/files/tutorials/primary-warmup/index.html 
Sit with your child and warm up together.  Have fun!!!!

Do you believe we’re beginning Unit 6 of the Reading Series, “Imagine It”.  The theme is “Shadows”, perfect prelude to the upcoming Ground Hog event!   Next week’s letters/sounds Ff and Jj will be introduced; in addition to the sight word, for.

Ground Hog Day is fast approaching.   Dress in brown on Friday, February 1st!!!  Be ready to transform into a ground hog and crawl through an oversized plastic tube, which we will pretend is the animal’s home.  At the end of the tunnel, the children in both the AM and PM classes, (including Woodchuck Pearl and Ground Hog Rich) will dramatize the legend of the ground hog.  We will participate in a graphing activity to predict the legend of the ground hog.   Watch the early morning news on Saturday, February 2, and compare our class graphing results with Punxsutawney Phil.  It’s going to be a Happy “G” Day  for  ALL!

February fun continues.  A hard copy of the calendar with dates/events to remember will be sent home!   Our 100th Day Celebration is a milestone to go down in history!  Your child and collection of 100 things will be photographed.  A class book will be published and circulated among the Rascal Families!

Valentine cards are in the party plans.   Let’s make a mailbox at home to house all the Valentine cards.  Mailboxes can be made from empty shoe boxes (adult size), cereal or laundry boxes.  

Your child may decorate with wrapping paper, stencils, stickers, puff paint, glitter glue…the list is endless.  Remember every mailbox needs a name on it so all your Rascal friends can deliver their Valentines to you.  Bring the Valentine mailbox and cards (in a zip-loc bag) to school on ONE day only…. Thursday, February 14th.  Traditionally, this particular day has always been a favorite.  Teachers and students are looking forward to the  SWEETEST Valentine Celebration on February 14!
                                                                                                                                                                                   
                                                     Spring Ahead or Winter Dread???
                                      June A. Rich    

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